Writing Schedule, Activate! (?)

I’ve had a horrible writing week, which makes me cranky. I do have a few excuses, mostly revolving around finishing up my last week at my student job and the awful traffic that has sprung up due to the rain returning (seriously, it’s just rain people. Not all of you will melt).

I’ve also let myself be a little lax because I FINALLY finished up rewriting this section I’ve been working on for a while. There’s a sense of shit-eating-grin relief that always pops up afterwards, of finally being able to return to moving the story along. I’ve been riding on that for a while. I really cannot get over that fulfillment of taking the story the next step, or being carried along as something evolves in an unexpected way. It’s kinda of perfect for my lazy-OCD brain: I obsess over getting certain things written or done, but just let it happen when the story takes a sharp turn to the left.

Since I rewrote that section, there is some light rewriting to do to make sure that the tone and style moving forward with the story fits into the rewritten part. The character dynamic is a bit different now, so I’ve got to run through and do some shifting.

It’s time to get back to work.

I hear advice all the time about setting up a writing schedule. A specific time, like a job or appointment, that is just for writing that is free from distractions and obligations. Maybe it’s because I’ve never had much of an opportunity to do that, but I’ve never really written that way. Sometimes, with a particular schedule, I’ll know I have a free hour here or there and will sit down to write. But most often I write in spurts and starts, where I’ll spend a week writing for hours every day, blocking out everything, and then maybe an hour every two days.

(What do you think – if I paced myself better would the flow last longer?)

Even beyond that, a lot of times my best writing times will be the impromptu sit-downs in strange or new places. (My laptop is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me – I take that sucker with me EVERYWHERE) And often, a lot of noise or a corner in a crowded room is one of the easiest places for me to write. Maybe it’s the white noise. Listening to a song I know well over and over again also seems to work in this way.

It’s the change in place or time that seems to facilitate writing. But, I’ve never had much of a schedule that I could hammer out around being able to write.

That is about to change. We’re going to see how this schedule-writing goes.

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About R. K. Brainerd

I've been writing since my pre-teens, mostly in the realm of fantasy and sci-fi. My characters are pretty much always clamoring for attention, and if I don't listen, they plague me with insane dreams and nightmares until I start writing. I also raise dairy goats, the evidence of which can be found on my Instagram. My debut novel -- an alternate-history fantasy -- it set to come out in 2018, probably Fall time. Welcome to the adventure.
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